Ukraine can win the counteroffensive even without F-16 fighters, and their presence would not have a decisive influence on the situation on the battlefield.
Source: The New York Times with reference to current and former officials in Ukraine, the US and Europe, as well as Western defense analysts
Literally: “Could the F-16s make a difference in the Ukrainian counteroffensive? Most military experts doubt this and say that Kyiv can win without them.”
Details: As the newspaper writes, the Joe Biden administration waited more than a year before allowing NATO countries to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. By the time the pilots are trained on these aircraft, it will be too late to help and protect the ground forces that are going through this phase of the fighting.
This begs the question: Can a counteroffensive win without a significant air force, the basis of the warfare tactics the West is urging Ukraine to adopt? The answer seems to be yes, as current and former officials in Ukraine said in an interview last week. , the US and Europe, as well as Western defense analysts,” the publication says.
However, the publication notes that without fighters, it “is likely to be much more difficult.”
“It will have to be done without the F-16s. But I believe they can,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired US Air Force general and former NATO commander.
However, he added: “If you expect Ukraine to fight the way we fight, then they should have the tools that we have, and we didn’t give them those tools.”
Some experts say a lack of air power put Ukraine at a disadvantage this summer against Russian helicopter gunships that attacked Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles. According to the UK Department of Defense, at least some of these helicopters are equipped with anti-tank missiles, which are fired either too far or too low for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept.
Colonel Markus Reisner, who oversees military development at Austria’s top military academy, said that with more combat aircraft, Ukraine could better protect its ground forces from these attacks.
“Some US generals say, ‘Well, that’s not what the Ukrainians need right now.’ I think it’s a political statement, not military logic,” he added.
According to the publication, both Ukraine and Russia have strong air defenses, which largely deter both of them from launching air strikes near or behind the front lines using manned combat aircraft. For the most part, Ukrainian pilots, who now fly Soviet-era MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets, try not to get too close to their targets or stay in the air for too long so as not to become a target themselves.
In view of these restrictions, a Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not clear whether Ukrainian forces would be able to support ground forces even if they had F-16s.
After Ukraine suffered heavy casualties early in the counteroffensive in an attempt to adopt a combined-arms approach, some commanders decided to abandon it and return to the tactics they know best – artillery and rocket fire to weaken Russia’s combat capability in a war of attrition. .
This did not come as a complete surprise to military experts, who believe the problems go far beyond the absence of an air force. Retired Colonel Steve Boylan, an experienced US Army pilot and former spokesman for the Combined Arms Operations Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said it took years for US troops to learn “to do it efficiently, not in the middle of a fight.”
According to Douglas Barry, a military aerospace expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, sending just a few F-16s into battle won’t make much of a difference in a war. “There should be enough of them, they should correspond to the tasks set,” he said.
If Ukraine had several properly trained and equipped F-16 squadrons, Barry said, “would that help in a counteroffensive? That’s a theoretical question, but the theoretical answer is yes.”
What came before: On August 11, The Washington Post reported that the first group of six Ukrainian pilots will complete training on American F-16 fighters by at least next summer.
Background:
2023-08-13 18:01:59
#Ukraines #counteroffensive #successful #F16s #NYT
